Working Cures

"Exploring the charged topic of black health under slavery, Sharla Fett reveals how herbalism, conjuring, midwifery, and other African American healing practices became arts of resistance in the antebellum South.".

"Felt shows how enslaved men and women drew on African precedents to develop a view of health and healing that was distinctly at odds with slaveholders' property concerns. While white slave-owners narrowly defined slave health in terms of "soundness" for labor, slaves embraced a relational concept of health that was intimately tied to religion and community.

African American healing practices thus not only restored the body but also provided a formidable weapon against white objectification of black health.".

"Based on innovative readings of slave narratives, household remedy books, overseer letters, plantation records, and antebellum medical journals, Working Cures charts the contentious realm of plantation medical encounters. Fett's compelling analysis of these struggles illuminates the vital connection drawn by enslaved African Americans between personal health and collective freedom."--BOOK JACKET.